10 Things That Make My Special Needs Life Easier
March 28, 2012 in Featured, From Julia by Julia Roberts
I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes my life easier. Sometimes it’s the small things, right? I got to thinking about the little tangible things as well as the big things (like how people treat me during my life in the special needs world). I have a lot more, but I was wondering what YOU want to add to this list. What makes your (special needs) life better, easier, brighter? Little things and big things! Share!
1. Cute, age appropriate pants with elastic bands. Better yet, jeggings because they look like skinny jeans but don’t fasten (for the kids, not me, unless you count the yoga pants I am wearing right now but not for yoga).
2. Medicine pill boxes for 7 days, with AM and PM. Honestly, it seems like a small thing, I know, but it’s life-altering.
3. Helpful front desk/nurses, especially when they smile and act like they like their jobs.
3. Other parents who have open minds to kids with differences because this usually means their kids do, too.
4. Friends who cook. And share.
5. Doctors willing to use technology. Oh, the faxes I have sent across the country. But the email? That really works fast!
6. Drive-through pharmacies. Enough said.
7. Throw-up chin buckets. Too much said.
8. Numbing cream.
9. ER fast track for already compromised kids? Brilliant. And kind. (Also, who invented this?)
10. Velcro shoes instead of laces.
This originally ranMarch 16, 2011…add to the list!
I woke up one morning when I was 5 and heard my mother sobbing behind the door of her room, my father comforting her. My brothers told me that Grandpa had died. A while later, Mom emerged, hair freshly brushed, lipstick bright red. She cheerfully asked what I wanted for breakfast. I wasn’t hungry, I was confused. I wanted to ask about Grandpa, but Mom’s tight smile warned me not to say anything that might upset her. While I pushed a piece of French toast around my plate I had a realization–an absolute epiphany: To be a grown-up means that you have to hide your sadness!
Some children may demonstrate difficulties or delays with fine motor development due to developmental delays or medical diagnoses such as Cerebral Palsy, Autism, or Down Syndrome. Other children may develop fine motor difficulties from a lack of opportunity and practice. Children are spending much less time playing with fine motor manipulatives and constructing crafts, instead choosing to play video games and watch television. This can result in poor development of the muscles in the arm and hand which further leads to handwriting and cutting difficulties when in school.
Jackie Viener is the Fairy Godmother at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. Yes, you read that right; she’s the Fairy Godmother who comes to visit the kids who are staying in the hospital and who might need a little extra love and kindness (and magic) when they’re feeling scared or worried. She started volunteer as a storyteller in the hospital but then when she noticed that many of the children came in costumes, she was inspired to add her own.
